Fatima Zehra

For most of my life, I saw myself akin to the characters in Disney’s Aladdin. I would dress up as Jasmine for primary school dress-up days, and even until college thought of my own culture reflected in the imagery and cultural symbolism of Aladdin. As people of color, our ethnicities and racial identities are given little room, so we are often willing to settle for infantilizing, stereotypical depictions of ourselves onscreen.